NAIROBI, KENYA: President Uhuru Kenyatta is pushing forward a “welfare state” experiment started by retired President Mwai Kibaki, with an allocation of more than Sh40 billion free goodies for social welfare.

Allocations for orphans, the elderly, children in public primary schools and day secondary schools as well as others are seen as government’s measure to uplift the lives of Kenya’s poorest people.

President Kibaki is credited for introducing Free Primary Education in public schools, often attended by children of poor parents and associated with dismal performance in national examinations.  He also introduced cash benefits for elderly people, which they collect after every two months.

Uhuru, in the allocations contained in the budget speech read on Thursday by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, is pushing on with the “welfare state” experiment despite Kenya’s small economy and a Sh342 billion deficit.

Welfare state is a concept where the government deliberately promotes the economic wellbeing of its people and is common in wealthy countries like Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Some of the benefits doled out include payment for utility bills, pension schemes and cash welfare benefits as witnessed in Kenya through cash benefits for the elderly.

Rotich set aside Sh13.5 billion for vulnerable groups including people with disabilities, orphans, older persons and street families. It also includes Sh400 million for the Presidential Bursary Scheme that targets orphans and poor, bright students.

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However, critics said while this could help the extremely poor people to cope with hardships, it does not offer a solution to poverty.

“Countries with strong economies are able to do this at a larger scale compared to developing countries,” the Kenya Investments Authority (KIA) Chairman Moses Ikiara said.

“This is why I suggest that while we should support the vulnerable in society, focus should be on production and infrastructural development to create income and jobs,” he said.

There were fears life may become unbearable with the common Kenyan being taxed more to meet the glaring budgetary deficit. 

 “In this budget, I am going a step further to propose additional resources to cover more vulnerable persons such as orphans and vulnerable children and elderly persons,” Rotich said in his speech.

The Director of the Western Kenya Human Rights Watch Job Bwonya noted there was nothing wrong with assisting the vulnerable if the government has means to do so without inflicting financial pain on the common Kenyan.